Winter the dolphin's rescue off Volusia has Hollywood ending

New Smyrna Beach fisherman and Edgewater crew recall real story behind dolphin's rescue — now the topic of a movie, 'Dolphin Tale'

November 27, 2010|By Ludmilla Lelis, Orlando Sentinel

Nearly five years ago, a wintry day of fishing turned into a dolphin-rescue story made for Hollywood. And now the tale of the tail is being made by Hollywood.

"Dolphin Tale" is based on the life story of Winter the dolphin, who lost her tail but now swims with a prosthetic one.

Now the resident star of the Clearwater Marine Aquarium, Winter was rescued from Mosquito Lagoon in Volusia County, where she was caught in a crab trap. The tailless dolphin attracted the help of an orthotics company that specially designed a prosthetic tail, a first for a dolphin.

The movie version doesn't resemble much of Winter's real rescue Dec. 10, 2005. But the details of that day are clearly recalled by a local fisherman, an Edgewater teenager, and his mother and his former teacher and principal.

That Saturday was bitterly cold, but Jim Savage would never give up a chance to go fishing. The New Smyrna Beach man launched his flat skiff at first light, the only boat at the ramp at Canaveral National Seashore.

On his way to a favorite trout-fishing hole, he noticed a distant buoy bobbing against the wind, creating a wake that rippled against the other waves.

Savage approached and heard a sound like desperate gasps of a drowning victim. Then he saw a baby dolphin entangled in a crab trap. Her body was wrapped tightly into a C-shape, and the trap's weight dragged her down.

"She must have spun and fought it but just kept getting more twisted," he said.

He cut the rope in several places, freeing her enough to swim. But she didn't go far. One piece of rope remained embedded in her mouth. Savage gently approached, but she darted away a few feet. Yet she didn't try to leave.

She was alone, too young to be weaned yet apparently abandoned. She wasn't swimming normally, rolling to her side rather than using her tail. Savage called the state wildlife hotline, which contacted the Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute, a nonprofit that responds to dolphin and whale emergencies in Volusia and Brevard counties.

Teresa Mazza, a research assistant at Hubbs, was visiting friends near Daytona Beach when she got the call about 9:15 a.m. She didn't have a boat or a rescue truck, but she notified Savage that she was on her way.

Meanwhile, Bill Mead, then principal of Chisholm Elementary School in New Smyrna Beach, was on his flats boat. He had taken a student, 9-year-old Frankie Brown, out for a fishing trip as a mentoring opportunity. Onboard were Frankie's mom and a former teacher, Joe Griffin.

Their boat was headed toward Turtle Mound when they saw Savage and joined him. Mazza was arriving soon, and Savage didn't want to leave the dolphin. Mead's boat left to pick her up on the shore.

Both boats idled behind the dolphin when Mazza slipped into the water. She tried to grab the dolphin, but it squealed away.

They came up with a plan to beach the dolphin on the shallow shore of Turtle Mound. Both boats would guard her flanks, gently directing her toward the target. They made their first pass. She slipped away. They caught up, blocked her sides, then tried to steer her again.

"She managed to escape three times," Griffin said. "It probably took us 30 minutes to tire her out."

At last, the dolphin headed toward the shore, and Mazza plunged in to grab her. The dolphin slipped away, and Savage jumped out of his boat and grabbed her. "That was my only catch that day," he said.

A team for Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute in Fort Pierce was hours away, so Mazza would wait with the dolphin, along with Claire Surrey, who worked for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and had showed up to help.

Mead's group departed, leaving Frankie with a real-life lesson. "You could see the scars from the crab net, and it made me feel pretty good that we could help an animal," said Frankie, now 14. "If people don't help animals, then who will?"

Savage eventually left about noon.

Mazza had wrapped the dolphin in towels and held the animal's body in her lap. "She was just exhausted, so when she finally calmed down, she began sleeping," Mazza remembered.

She guessed the dolphin was a month or two old and she worried about the terrible wounds on her tail. "But I was hopeful because she remained alert, even when she had her eyes closed. She wasn't in the process of dying."

Hours passed, and Harbor Branch called. The truck had a flat tire and couldn't come. A SeaWorld team was called. Mazza watched the sun travel across the sky as she and Surrey sat on the shore, quietly cradling the sleeping dolphin.

The sun was setting when the SeaWorld truck finally arrived about 5 p.m., ready to take the dolphin to Clearwater. It was a five-hour trip to the Clearwater Marine Aquarium, her new home, where she would be named Winter.

The dolphin squealed loudly as they took her away on a stretcher. "You could tell she still had a lot of energy and fight left in her," Mazza said. "It's a good sign, actually." It was one of the few hopeful cases that Mazza sees each year. Of the 100 or so stranding calls her group receives, very few animals survive.

And no other dolphin would have the amazing recovery and rehabilitation that Winter would have — a true Hollywood ending to the tale.